Oregon State was first game jitters and the defense gave up big plays, which has been our kryptonite this season. Jeff Brohm loves trick plays. Linebackers and safeties have got to play their best game of the year.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

Looking for our bucks to put together a solid 4 quarters Saturday night! We've seen some promising stretches and improvements at key positions over the past few weeks while still dealing with bouts of inconsistency.

I like our offense to roll and believe we'll feel better about our run game coming outta West Lafayette. Simba just barely misses his 3rd straight game with 400 yards passing, and this week it's Johnny Dixon's turn to go off to the tune of ~85 yards with 2 long scores!

On defense, we don't let up any of those 50+ yards big plays, and Pryor starts to really his his stride! Hold a pretty potent offense to ~300 yards. And put me down for sacks from predator, dre, and tyreke!

28-24 Buckeyes in the rain. KJ will share his supply of Stickum with the other WRs. Either Weber or Dobbins goes over 100 yds and gets most of the carries in the 4th. OSU will succeed on one 4th and short. Haubeil misses from 45+ early on. Prince looks better.

Rondale Moore is scary good. Legit threat to go for 250 all purpose yards and 3 TDs. We will need the Defense to step it up a couple notches to somewhat contain him. I think the Boilers can get 24 to 31 points. I hope the weather doesn't affect our passing game or we could struggle to match that.

I have a feeling the Buckeyes are gonna come out trying to establish the run, and I don’t think we’ll be able to. We don’t have anybody to cover Rondale Moore, and he will burn us early. The whole game could hinge on turnovers. Buckeyes were +3 in turnovers v Minnesota and still only won by 16. If we lose some early turnovers to Purdue in bad weather, it could suck the life out of the team. Hope I’m wrong, but I think it’s gonna be hard to watch: 24-38.

Some interesting predictions. Some believe that the Buckeyes will hold them to under 14...I would love to see that
The Buck's have made very average QB's look awesome this guy's pretty good. Surprise me if he doesn't have a big day. I'll take the Bucks in a not comfortable at all game.
38-35

38-35 Bad guys. I hate it, I hope I am wrong, I hope we go undefeated to the tune of 15-0. I think we go down this weekend. Blough is a decent QB, Rondale Moore is something special, Brohm is a good coach, weird crap happens when we go there, it'll be the 3rd night road game of the year, the defense is reeling after 3 tough ones of their last 4, and they just found out the best player in college football won't be kicking down the door to rescue them in November. I think it's the perfectly ugly storm.

If I am to eat my words it'll be because of number 7. I hope I eat crow on the dining car of the Dwayne Train on Saturday.

"The only good thing about it is winning the d*** thing" - Urban Meyer on The Game The War

It makes little sense to predict an outright Purdue win. Could it happen? Sure, they have a good offense and Ohio State’s defense is a work in progress. Weird things sometimes happen in West Lafayette.

But Ohio State’s offensive advantage over Purdue’s defense is much bigger! As long as Ohio State’s offense plays reasonably well, Purdue will have no answer.

Purdue’s chance of winning this game is about 20 percent. If Oklahoma (great offense, porous defense) were playing this weekend at Purdue, none of our negative nellie fans would pick Purdue. But they’re picking Purdue to beat Ohio State.

Maybe so, Fido. But I've been a fan since 1968, and trust me, I've seen a lot shit happen over the years with Ohio State that "made little sense" . And to finish my point, if OK were playing at night, in the rain at W Lafayette, I would not bet my next paycheck on them either.

Running game in the crapper. Defense getting gashed over and over again. Offensive line can't block anyone. Linebackers still MIA. Injuries mounting up. Still trying to fix those same things in week 8 that should've been fixed by week 4.

Man, I get that the Buckeyes have underperformed a lot of the time this year... But, really?

I do think Purdue is a fairly dangerous team. They're going to do what every other team has done this year and take all the stuff they've put on film and throw it in the trash and do a bunch of stuff the coaching staff hasn't seen and it's going to take the coaching staff 2 quarters to adjust.

Moore is going to have a good game against our defense, he is a big play, the defense gives up big plays, it's going to happen, but adjustments in the second half will make the difference.

At the half: 24-21 Buckeyes

Final: 34-24 Buckeyes

Ohio State does it's usual MO, gives up points early, buckles down late and only allows Purdue on the scoring side of the field once to the tune of a field goal.

I agree, I mean their performance, especially on defense, this season has left a lot to be desired... But, c'mon, there are the haves (Buckeyes) and the have-nots (Purdue and the like). They've got one very valuable asset on offense that can hurt our defense, but their defense hardly ever shows up week to week.

I'm a blind homer. For years, I have peddled a theory at 11W that the negative nellies are just as irrational as us blind homers, only in reverse.

Well, picking Purdue to win this game outright without getting favorable odds on Purdue is simply not rational. Currently, the money line on Purdue in Vegas is +400/+425. Serious gamblers who bet Purdue at +425 won't actually expect Purdue to win the game. Rather, they will think that Purdue has, say, a 35 or 40% chance of winning, whereas +425 implies that Purdue has about a 20% chance of winning. So, the money line gives them an opportunity for an overlay in the event that Purdue wins. If they make enough "smart" bets this way, they will make a profit even if they cash less than half of their tickets.

Further up this thread, I wondered . . . if Oklahoma were at Purdue this weekend, how many of our negative nellies would pick Purdue? Although Ohio State's defense is a work in progress, it's better than Oklahoma's.

Ill say this, and I know it won't be liked, and I hope Im wrong. Im a seasoned sports psychologist and have been working in the field clinically for 20 years. My observation is that UM's most significant psychological vulnerability is loyalty. It's a major blindspot in his psychological constitution, and it's cost him in many ways, most costly of course was his loyalty to a the WR coach that resulted in a major s-show for the institution. As far as coaching, U was far to loyal to Barrett, and had he used Haskins the last two years, as a changeup, who knows where those teams would have landed. Presently, his loyalty to Haskins results in Martell sitting on the bench, and of course they are as one dimensional as a team can be. If U would put Martel in, at the min, as a changeup, it would help the running game significantly. If he were to get Haskins and Martell on the field at the same time, which seems like a no brainer, they would be even more lethal and explosive. However, I predict that U will not play Martell and this will result in the team remaining one dimensional offensively. With a vulnerable O-line there may be shoot-outs, but its more likely they will get beat badly by someone, most likely MSU and/or UM, who will simply put 9 players in the box and blitz 90% of the time. The D is what they are, that's a line from U himself through the years. In week 7 you are who you are. Getting healthy may help a little, but this is who they are. They give up a lot of yards between the 20s and have prevented scores. They make nice half time adjustments. The D is enough to make it to at Big Championship if the O was more balanced. The lack of a run game will prove to be the shortcoming of this team, that never gets corrected because of U's own blindspot. Prediction: Purdue 38 OSU 28.

You'll probably psychoanalyze me for asking such a d-bag question, but I can't help myself . . . Since written communication is important to the field of sports psychology, have you considered the possibility that using paragraphs might help you more clearly communicate your theories and diagnoses?

I respectfully disagree, citing past games has nothing to do with any future events and this is not a typical Ohio State team. A 3-3 Purdue team needs to be respected, but people making these picks like we are going to lose is over the top. Reading predictions on here you'd think we are playing the 1972 Dolphins.

Understood. We'll shake hands and disagree. I remember the predictions last November that we would blow out Iowa, get on the bus and head to the airport. I've seen too many unexpected losses in my life -- and in this case, our opponent is trending up and we are going in the other direction. You can't see or understand the worry. I can't see the bravado or smugness. Let's hope, for the record, you are right.

28 - 35 play behind the whole game. team tries to make a game of it in the 4th but falls short. This is the perfect storm game. Hopefully it is a wake up call, but my fear is that this team is what it is. great QB and WRs, shit defense and piss poor OL.

Could this be the game where the OSU offense commits to the run first, in order to control the clock? Purdue's defense is NOT good. The best defense for the Buckeyes may be to keep their offense on the sidelines.

I like this approach. However, they need to quit running that damn inside zone play as if anyone on the planet thinks Haskins might actually keep it. There is no numbers advantage without the threat of the Q run. Where is the power O for example. Call it, line up, and run the damn play. Get in the huddle, tell the online we are running it. No RPO call at the line. Let the OL know they can run fire off and maul the prick in front of them. Then maybe we can get some movement, maybe get on the second level and gash them.

If the weather is as predicted, then I simply do not know what the outcome might be. If Haskins is able to throw his darts without worry, then I see a result similar to the Minnesota game, say, 27-21 Good Guys.

We’ve come to the point in the calendar when weather starts having an impact. Looks like right now rain forecast most of the day should be ending around kick off. Windy 15-25 from NW. High of 57 dropping to 29 after that rain pulls through. From satellite looks like Ross-Ade sits with the field running North-South. Hope the Buckeyes win the toss and defer. Kick off into the wind so they have that steady NW wind for the second and fourth quarters.

Have to get some run game working Saturday night with that forecast.

Schiano needs to take account of the wind too. Drop those backers or at least two into coverage.

Those are my keys and if the Bucks follow my score is 42-21 good guys.

I like the Buckeyes to come out and make a statement. After the frustration of the past 2 weeks and with everyone saying this is a trap game, potential upset, likely struggle, etc, I think they come out and lay the wood to the Boilermakers.